Purification and analysis of patchouli alcohol from patchouli oil by vacuum fractionation distillation

Abstract

Efforts to purify patchouli alcohol from patchouli oil (Pogostemon cablin Benth.) have been carried out. The patchouli oil was obtained from Bone-Bone village, Baraka sub-district, Enrekang Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The purification was conducted using vacuum fractionation distillation method with a pressure of 96 kPa. Identification of fractions was carried out by the GCMS method. By this method, four fractions and one raffinate were obtained, namely fraction I (141-142°C), fraction II (145-148°C), fraction III (149-150°C), fraction IV (151-152°C), and raffinate. Patchouli alcohol content in each fraction was 9.76%, 10.86%, 45.37% and 70.34%; while in raffinate was 0%. Based on these results, this method is superior to previous methods, and the fraction IV is suitable to be used as a precursor in derivatization of patchouli alcohol.